When you’re ready, here’s how to erase or reformat drives: So make sure to back up any important files before erasing or reformatting your drives. When you reformat a drive, it also erases all the data on it. Or you might need to reformat it so it works with different operating systems, like Windows, Linux, or even iPadOS.

You may want to erase your drive as a quick way to create space for new files. Feel free to skip this section if you already know how to do it. Let’s start with a brief explanation of the correct way to reformat or erase drives using your Mac. How to erase or reformat a Drive using Disk Utility

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Mac or MacBook Doesn’t Recognize External Drives, Troubleshooting Tips.If your MacBook’s Disk Utility won’t let you erase drives, follow the steps below to fix it. This might happen for a variety of reasons, all of which keep you from erasing or reformatting the drives connected to your Mac. Press 'Enter.' Input your administrator credentials and confirm the action, if prompted.You can’t reformat a drive in macOS Disk Utility when the Erase button is grayed out. Highlight the code and press 'Command-C' to copy the edited code to the clipboard.Ĭlick on the Terminal prompt and press 'Command-V' to paste the code. If you want to reformat, replace 'eraseDisk' with 'reformat' and delete the 'JHFS+' and 'diskname' parts of the command. Replace 'diskidentifier' with the Disk Identifier name retrieved from Disk Utility. Change 'diskname' to the new name for the disk, or type '%noformat%' to leave the name blank. Change 'JHFS+' to 'HFS+' if you want a volume that is not journaled. Type 'diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ diskname diskidentifier' into the TextEdit document.Įdit the 'diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ diskname diskidentifier' code in TextEdit.Ĭhange 'eraseDisk' to 'secureErase' if you want to securely erase the disk. Click 'Go' and double-click 'TextEdit' to open the TextEdit application. Creating and Using a Terminal Format CommandĬlick 'Go,' select 'Go to Folder.' and type '/Applications/TextEdit' into the text field.

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